Mark Andrews Comments on Hip-Drop Tackles Now Being a Penalty

The ‘hip-drop’ tackle has been one of the biggest conversation pieces in the football world throughout this offseason. Recently, at this year’s league meetings, the NFL made a move to ban the tackle. There will now be a 15-yard penalty tacked on to the play whenever a player attempts a tackle using the hip-drop technique.

The reasoning behind this ban from the NFL is pretty simple. It’s the result of a recent run of injuries over the past couple of years from tackles like these.

One of the players who suffered an injury like this recently is Mark Andrews, who missed a large portion of the 2023 season due to an ankle injury caused by the hip-drop technique. He spoke with Jamison Hensley of ESPN about his support for the new ruling:

Andrews has experienced an injury as a result of that tackle recently, so he understands the dangers that come with it very well. With that in mind, it’s hard to argue against him, although the league’s new ruling has been rather controversial since being implemented.

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Mark Andrews Supports the Hip-Drop Ban

Andrews, who suffered as a result of a hip-drop tackle in 2023, spoke about his support for the league’s new rule

One of the reasons this move has been unpopular in the football world is the way in which this tackle happens. While defenders don’t intentionally hurt players using this technique, it remains one of the few ways in which a defender can successfully tackle a ball-carrier from behind, without diving at their legs, which can carry a lot of injury risks itself, too.

Another aspect of the ruling that will be interesting to watch unfold will be the way in which the league’s officials decide to call it. The truth is, a large portion of hip-drop tackles aren’t intentional. Obviously, football players are hard to tackle, and although defenders can make an effort to avoid making a dangerous tackle, when bodies are colliding, injuries unfortunately happen.

With that in mind, some current and former NFL players aren’t too happy about the new rule:

Part of the reason for the push-back against the ban of this tackle is due to the fact that there will likely be calls made by officials in cases where players are forced into a hip-drop tackle by something out of their control, like another player, or a juke move made by the ball-carrier.

However, as Andrews mentions, safety is paramount. The sport has seen a ton of devastating injuries to players over the past several years, and unfortunately, the hip-drop tackle has been the cause of a decent number of them.

Over the past several years, the NFL has done their due diligence to increase player safety in various ways. These include various changes to the kickoff format, increased penalties for both defenders and ball-carriers lowering their heads, and now, the new hip-drop ruling.

It undoubtedly is harder to be a defender in the NFL than it ever has been, and the recent hip-drop ruling is a good example of that. Still, there are reasons to support the ruling, and as Mark Andrews points out, player safety is one of them.

Source: Jamison Hensley, ESPN

All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.

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